


Bonds Of Love: Epilogue

by XGlassShattersX (orphan_account)



Series: MegaBondShipping Series: Bonds of Love [4]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Background Relationships, Boys In Love, Charizarditeshipping, Complete, Domestic, Epilogue, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Gay Male Character, Happy Ending, Kalos-chihou | Kalos, Kanto-chihou | Kanto, Living Together, M/M, Mentions of Past Events, One-Sided Attraction, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rain, Rainbows, Rare Pairings, Rare Relationships, Same-Sex Marriage, They're proper adults now!, Yaoi, megabondshipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-17 18:37:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21059090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/XGlassShattersX
Summary: A look in Ash and Alain's future.





	Bonds Of Love: Epilogue

**Author's Note:**

> It's as the title says.

Ash loved traveling around the world, but he could definitly say that there was something pleasing about living a domestic life. Living together gave him a warm, comfortable and cozy feeling. 

The predictability of doing chores, talking with each other during dinner about their days and just the feeling of being safe in a home they had built up together with their own decorations, appliances and rules also felt pretty nice.

It was something he probably never would've considered if it hadn't been for Alain asking him to move in with him in his apartment, a pretty big one as well, in Lumiose City which he had recently bought.

Alain had told him rather sheepishly that he wanted to wait with proposing to him – he had already brought a ring - but once Ash had accidently found the box with the ring in it he suddenly thought it was the perfect moment to propose, seeing how flustered Ash had managed to get while he asked him about it. 

And so they got married, giving their vows and kissing each other under a cherry blossom tree in the season of spring. Some people were happier for them than others, and while the couple knew that some of their friends and even former rivals remained having affections for Ash - Misty, Iris and Gary - despite knowing he would never leave Alain they came to the wedding anyway, sitting through it with clenched teeth if only for Ash’s sake. Tracey and Professor Oak had been sympathetic towards them.

Serena and Shauna were there, having made up with each other after the latter had to hunt the blonde down in Hoenn for taking off without telling her anything. And while Shauna still had feelings for her, she simply stuck as being friends with her because it was obvious Serena didn't feel the same, though she was happy her fellow performer had gotten over Ash at least.  
  
Ash's parents had cried tears of joy, and Delia had invited Erica to their wedding as well because they kept in contact and became good friends. Erica came with a partner of her own - Christopher - who had taken over her uncle's company after the old man died. She had also taken in the lonely Natu who had stayed at her uncle's side until his death, never having listened to his final words.

Erica had found the Pokémon sitting on her uncle's gravestone, and thus had decided to take him in after a while. Now her Horsea, Ariel, had a friend and wasn't completely alone with Lucy's Ninetales, who had become rather unbearable ever since the police had taken her trainer away, whenever Erica and her lover left the house.

Clemont and Korrina, who had also been a couple at that point - having been given the final push by Bonnie herself who was also a trainer now, much like Max who was only a bit older than her - had greatly enjoyed the wedding. Brock, who had been surprised that Ash was getting married earlier than him, and Cilan, who instantly checked the couples compatibility, had been holding a little cooking contest to show off their skills. A lot of Ash's other friends, May and Dawn, also were in a relationship.

May with Drew and Dawn with Zoey, and they had been one of the few ones who had been very surprised to suddenly get a wedding invitation from Ash. This meant that a lot of people, as well as Pokémon, still hadn't met Alain before the big event, and while they had scolded Ash for not introducing his boyfriend to them beforehand, they were also pretty accepting of Alain afterwards, much to the couples relief.

Some of the Pokémon, especially Ash's Bayleef, were a bit harder when it came to accepting Alain, if the bruises he had gotten from them were anything to go by.

Then there was Mairin, who had cheered a little too hard in the background that it was ''about time'' that they tied the knot. That was the same girl who had insisted on putting a photo with Ash crossdressing in the book she had given the Kantonian just before he left Kalos to get treated in Kanto for his PTSD. Ash had been very...embarrassed when he told Alain about the picture over the Phone, and while the Kalosian wondered how they hadn't noticed Mairin making a photo at that particular moment he had kinda wished at the same time that he had been in Kanto right at that moment just to see his lovers reaction.

In the beginning, Ash had been hesitant in actually leaving his home back in Kanto, but after talking it out with Alain and the others, he found himself accepting to it after they came back from their honeymoon.

Their honeymoon had taken place in Alola, one of the regions in the world Ash had never actually gone to before. They had gone there mainly to relax and have some fun in that exotic region, but imagine their surprise when they were actually Jessie, James and Meowth there, and not as Team Rocket either.

It had been a few years since Ash had last seen them, and since Jessie had been pregnant and wearing a wedding ring of her own, they were more like ex-Team Rocket members at this point.

Especially since they had told him and Alain that they had been fired because their boss found them even more useless while Jessie and James were in love then they had been previously and he didn’t accept his ‘employees’ being in a relationship because it got in the way of their work, as Meowth told them while looking incredibily upset at the memory.

Catching up with them for a few had only gained them so much information about their situation. Such as that James owned a summer vacation house on Mele Mele Island and that he and Jessie managed to get married despite the guy’s parents being against it at first since he already was engaged and because Jessie wasn’t a ‘lady’ or from a wealthy family herself.

Apparantly ‘a lot had happened’ but in the end Jessie had managed to get James’s parent’s approval, but only if she took studying under them in order to become a lady seriously. Jessie had, to all of their surprises, turned out decently, though she still had a bit of a temper sometimes, not as bad as in the past though, and still called people younger than her ‘twerps’.

After their goodbyes to the three of them and their relaxing honeymoon came to an end, the couple went back to their home in Lumiose City, being greeted by their happy friends and Pokémon.

When it came to down Pokémon, Ash only kept a team of six with him, which included Pikachu, while the rest stayed at Professor Oak's lab because of the lack of space. He occasionaly switched his team out though, so that no one would get left behind.

Alain was the same, but since he didn’t have as many Pokémon as his lover did and he could go see them at Professor Sycamore’s lab all he wanted, he didn’t need to switch them out so many times over the year.

Though Buizel, who never wanted to be seperated from her adoptive parents, was the only one always remaining on his team all year long. Alain wished he could do the same with Charizard, since he was his starter, but his height made moving around the house a chore.

Even without Charizard, or Tyranitar or any of Ash’s Pokémon who also weren’t able to stay indoors, with twelve Pokémon in the house it got way too easily cramped despite the apartment being pretty large. And then there was the fact that by owning a house also came the responsibilities, like actually having the money to pay for electricity, water etc.

It was known that many Pokémon trainers, champions - you name it - had a side job in order to live a stable life, because it often came as a surprise to many that you didn't make as much as you thought from battling when you finally had to start living on your own with everything included.

This is why Ash took on a job as a battle instructor in the Lumiose City Pokémon Trainer Academy and Alain continued helping out Professor Sycamore at the lab.

It paid well, plus Ash could teach young children about battling, tell them stories about his own travels, give them pointers and finally, the one thing he always liked doing, watching others battle and cheering them on.

It has now been three years since Alain had asked for his hand in marriage and to be honest the Kantonian was very satisfied with how his life was. It was true that he never managed to truly achieve his dream of becoming a Pokémon Master, but he also decided he needed to be realistic as well.

Ash had been very relieved his father, Charles Ketchum, had actually decided to come back to living in Pallet Town with his mother, though it had come to everyone’s surprise to see him show up so suddenly after all those years of being absent, calling himself an idiot for trying to become a Pokémon Master while all he really did was lose over and over again, disappointing his Pokémon and afraid to come back home for not being able to accomplish his dream.

His mother, while she had been pissed off at him for leaving her to raise Ash on her own for so many years, had called him a idiot and that there was nothing wrong with not being able to achieve your dream. After a while of tension they made up again and now they were as much in love as they were in the past.

Charles had been very…overbearing when he heard his only son was in a relationship.

First he had hugged Alain and welcomed him into the family – they hadn’t been married yet at that point – then he started gushing over the two of them and asked questions (‘’How did you meet?’’ ‘’Who confessed first?’’ and so forth) and last but not least he turned protective at the last moment, cuddling Ash close to him like a little kid and stated pretty childishly that he actually didn’t want to lose his ’baby boy’ to someone else.

Alain didn’t know what to make of him, but he supposed Charles was harmless and wouldn’t be a danger to their relationship.

It had been through his own father and some rather reliable sources that Ash had gotten to know – people from Elite Fours and League Champions from regions he had traveled to in the past - that for being able to become a Pokémon Master required a lot, and that really meant a lot of things.

Excelling in battles, meaning having won one Battle Frontier, winning two regional leagues – which meant at least the one of the region you were born in - and at least get in the Top Five of four Regional Leagues in total. Anyone who did would be able to enter the Master League, in which only the best of the best – mainly people from the Elite Four and Regional Champions - would be battling against each other.

Winning the Master League would normally mean being able to get the title of Pokémon Master, but that was only if the winning trainer managed to also succeed in Pokémon Contests and win two regional grand festivals, and most people got to know that after they'd gone through the Master League, with no clue of the added rule.

Ever since Contests and Grand Festivals became popular over the world, it had become an added rule in obtaining the title, and while a lot of people weren't happy with that – it was already very difficult to get in the top five of any of the regional leagues, none the less ending up winning them, and being able to get in to the Master League, so adding even more was incredibily unfair - the rule was never once scrapped.

There were simply too many requirements for that title, so most people were happy if they managed to become a Pokémon League Champion for a year, managed to get a seat in the Elite Four or actually managed to defeat one of the current undefeated champions of one of the regions in the world so that they could take that title for themselves.

Not everyone's dreams were meant to be fulfilled but there was no doubt about it that Ash - even though he sucked at contests and thus would never get that title - was still acknowledged as one of the strongest trainers of his generation despite that. Maybe with everything he had accomplished and with how many times he had saved the world from various evil organizations, he would even be put in the history books at some point.

As long as he was together with Alain and the people and Pokémon most important to him, that was good enough for him. His mother could not say enough times how proud she was of him, whether he managed to achieve his dream in the end or not.

Ofcourse Ash never gave up on traveling completely. Whenever there was a holiday he and Alain went wherever they wanted at that moment, wether it be a new region they hadn't gone to, or a place they already were familair with so that they could go visit some of their friends and family. And if he were to ever ask for a battle or be challenged to one himself, ofcourse he'd still go all out, as always.

Back in the present, on a very rainy day, the couple were about to go visit Ash's parents in Kanto, Pallet Town, because it was mothers day. 

Ash, Alain, Pikachu and Buizel had arrived in Kanto a day ago and spend the night in Viridian City’s Pokémon Center – since the one and only motel there was full - and now they were walking together through Route 1 towards Pallet Town, all four of them squeezing themselves under an umbrella the older of the two was holding, the wedding ring on his finger shining as a timid ray of sun, just from behind thick dark grey clouds, shone on them.

The rain was lessening, but was still hard enough to make the umbrella needed.

Ash glanced at his lover, a small affectionate smile on his face as they walked in comfortable silence next to each other.

Route 1 hadn’t changed a bit, it looked the same as always despite it now being a bit more wet and with no Pokémon in sight, sheltering themselves from the bad weather.

Honestly at this peaceful moment he prefered to hold Alain’s hand instead of walking next to him without any phsycial contact. It was something he had gotten used to doing while walking together, something natural, but he also understood the nessecity of not getting drenched by the harsh water drops falling from the sky.

They didn’t want to be dripping wet before they arrived in Pallet Town and possibly getting sick afterwards, and Ash knew Pikachu wouldn’t be very happy either if he suddenly decided to push the umbrella away just for a bit of affection.

Buizel wouldn’t have minded such a thing, she loved water and the cold didn’t have such an affect on her as everyone else because of her typing.

Ash looked away from Alain and back in front of him.

_We can hold hands later._

‘’Bui!’’

Buizel suddenly lets out a noise of surprise and pointed up to the sky. When everyone looked up they saw a large rainbow, the rain gradually stopping and then, eventually the sun appeared from behind the clouds, shining happily.

Ash sighed, a smile on his face.

‘’This brings back memories of the first day Pikachu and I started out journey.’’

Pikachu nodded.

‘’It was also raining that day?’’ Alain asked.

‘’Yeah!’’ Ash exclaimed, ‘’And Ho-Oh was there as well.’’

Alain choked.

‘’You saw Ho-Oh on the day you started your journey?!’’ He exclaimed. He knew Ash had seen a lot of legendary Pokémon on his journey, but on the very first day no less? And why was he just now hearing of this?! They were married for Arceus’ sake!

Ash laughed. It seemed that there were still some things that his lover had yet to know about him.

‘’Yeah! Pikachu and I actually saw Ho-Oh a few times throughout my many journeys, but he stopped appearing before me ever since I went to Sinnoh. I wonder where Ho-Oh is right now. Maybe he’s in Unova, or in Kalos.’’ He murmured, ‘’I don’t think I’ve ever told you about my first day as a trainer.’’

‘’Well I, for one, would love to hear it.’’ Alain said, his full attention on his lover.

‘’Pikachu got terribly hurt on our first day, which was my fault because I accidently pissed off a group of Spearow.‘’ Ash scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish, ‘’He didn’t want to listen to me back then, but when we got cornered I asked Pikachu to go in his Pokéball, so that I could save him. I didn’t care what happened to me just as long as my buddy was safe. I was very shocked when he actually jumped on my shoulder towards the flock and got struck by lightning at the same time he attacked them with a Thundershock. I must’ve blacked out, and when I came to Pikachu and I were next to each other, and the sky was clearing up. The next thing we saw was an amazing rainbow, with Ho-Oh flying over it, but ofcourse Professor Oak didn’t want to believe me.’’

He grumbled at the end.

Professor Oak had only really warmed up to him after the Indigo League

‘’You really are amazing.’’ Alain breathed, shaking his head with a smile, ‘’Reckless but amazing. I’d never have guessed you and Pikachu not being friends at the beginning, seeing as how tight you are now.’’

Buizel nodded her head very quickly in agreement.

‘’Well, every friendship has to start somewhere.’’ Ash grinned, ‘’In the beginning I didn’t think I’d ever get Pikachu to warm up to me either. I tried to catch a Pidgey by myself without his help but ended up getting my ass handed to me, and after that a Rattata even raided my bag. If I had never accidentally thrown that rock at Spearow instead of Pidgey, then everything might’ve ended up differently.’’

Alain was glad he had a bit more insight when it came to Ash and Pikachu.

‘’If you got granted the chance to go through that day again, would you go about it differently?’’

‘’Hmm,’’ Ash looked deep in thought at that question, crossing his arms over his chest. ‘’I think I would try to be a bit more understanding towards Pikachu, because he didn’t seem to want to be any trainers Pokémon. I think he wanted freedom more than anything else. I wish I had understood a lot earlier how Pokémon would feel when it comes to being captured and forced to battle alongside a trainer. Not all of them are happy to end up in such a situation. ’’

Alain smiled, it seemed that Ash had truly grown a lot from who he had been in the past.

Pikachu nodded his head slightly.

_True but I don’t feel that way anymore, _the electric type thought. He had started to like Ash more and more throughout their journeys, and eventually didn’t want his life without him. And besides, their journeys were fun as were the battles.

He had gotten so strong due to their training together and learned so much. It had all been thanks to Ash that he gotten to see that there was more to life than just living freely in the wild.

‘’Alright!’’ Ash exclaimed after a moment of silence, ‘’I think we’ve been standing here long enough! Let’s go Alain, Buizel, Pikachu, mom and dad are waiting for us!’’

It wasn’t raining anymore, so the Kantonian abandoned his place next to his lover and ran up ahead, feeling carefree as his shoes hit water puddles and wetted his pants slightly.

_Splash_

_Splash_

‘’Whoever’s last is a Slowpoke!’’

‘’Pika, Pikachu!’’

Alain smirked, before closing his umbrella and running after him with Buizel right next to him.

_Splash_

_Splash_

He wasn’t going to lose this race if he had anything to say about it.

‘’I’ll take you on anytime, dear!’’

‘’Bui, Bui!’’

_Splash_

_Splash_

They ran, they played and laughed together until they finally reached Delia’s and Charles home in Pallet Town and the first thing Ash’s mother had to do when her son, son in law and their Pokémon arrived was worry about how drenched their clothes were and give them a towel so that they could dry themselves off.

** _~ Fin ~_ **

**Author's Note:**

> It's a kinda crappy ending I know, but I'm really happy I'm finished with the series.
> 
> My thanks to everyone who supported this series.  
It's because of you guys that I've gotten this far. You're all the best!


End file.
